Why Do Users Like Video?
Studies of Multimedia-Supported Collaboration
John C. Tang and Ellen A. Isaacs
Introduction by John C. Tang
This technical report, written in 1992, describes our research group's experience with a desktop video conferencing prototype. The prototype enabled users to establish audio-video connections among SPARC(TM) workstations. It also included a whiteboard sharing capability that allowed users to draw and point together over a shared image on their computer screens. We studied how a group distributed between Sun's East and West Coast sites used the prototype and documented our findings on the value of video and how desktop conferencing fits into the larger spectrum of communication media.
This work was conducted when research groups were exploring new applications for video and audio, especially to support distributed groups. Researchers began examining the value of video, compared to just audio (especially given the added expense in technology and network bandwidth). Our project was part of a body of work in the research community that investigated the value of video and explored for what applications it was useful. Building on our initial project, we went on to develop other video-based prototypes (see Montage and Piazza references) and studied how people used these prototypes.
This research built on a hardware prototype board for a SPARC workstation for capturing and displaying video, prototype software for establishing desktop video conferences and shared whiteboard sessions among users, and a study of people actually using the system in their day-to-day activities. Thus, this research involved new hardware, new software, and a new way of studying how people use technology, all done within two years of the group's formation as one of the founding groups in Sun Labs.
The shared whiteboard prototype led directly to the Sun ShowMe(TM) Whiteboard product that was developed by SunSolutions(TM). The ShowMe product line eventually broadened to include video and audio, and was the precursor to the current line of SunForum(TM) desktop conferencing products. Our experience with the prototype video card helped shape the development of the SunVideo(TM) line of cards that integrated digital video into Sun workstations. While the widespread adoption of video and audio applications has been hampered by the lack of a standard multimedia platform for UNIX®, the recent advent of streaming video platforms provide the opportunity to fully realize and productize the concepts demonstrated in our prototypes.
Our current Network Communities research group in Sun Labs continues in this tradition of research on collaboration, exploring new applications for supporting distributed group work and studying how they are used.
REFERENCES:
- Tang, John C. and Ellen A. Isaacs, "Why Do Users Like Video? Studies of Multimedia-Supported Collaboration", Computer Supported Cooperative Work: An International Journal, Vol. 1, Issue 3, 1993, pp. 163-196.
- Isaacs, Ellen, A. and John C. Tang, "What video can and cannot do for collaboration: a case study", Multimedia Systems, Vol. 2, No. 2, August 1994, pp. 63-73.
- Tang, John C. and Monica Rua, "Montage: Providing Teleproximity for Distributed Groups", Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI) `94, Boston, MA, April 1994, pp. 37-43.
- Tang, John C., and Monica Rua, "Montage: Multimedia Glances for Distributed Groups", SIGGRAPH Video Review, Issue 106, October 1994 (videotape).
- Tang, John C., Ellen A. Isaacs, and Monica Rua, "Supporting Distributed Groups with a Montage of Lightweight Interactions", Proceedings of the Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) `94, Chapel Hill, NC, October 1994, pp. 23-34.